


oh, mother

by ahoy_cinderella



Category: Bodyguard (TV 2018)
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff, Step-parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:34:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25595107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahoy_cinderella/pseuds/ahoy_cinderella
Summary: "Julia, why do you call your mummy, mother?"
Relationships: David Budd & Julia Montague, David Budd/Julia Montague
Comments: 10
Kudos: 78





	oh, mother

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea of Charlie catching Julia calling her mum "mother" on the phone and asking her why and then asking her another heartbreaker question later. I wrote a shorter version of this out on my phone a couple of days ago and it spiralled into this.
> 
> I hope you like it.
> 
> please let me know what you think.
> 
> love you all.

* * *

* * *

“Julia?”

The brunette dropped her phone on the counter and swished her head round at the little voice that peeked over the back of the dark beige couch that she and David had just purchased two weeks previous.

“Yes, my love?” she was so grateful for her blossoming relationship with Charlie Budd. He had been so shy with her from day one but in the last two to three months he had really taken to her, taking her completely surprise. Her relationship with Ella had been almost instantaneous, the young girl asking her a ton of questions about her schoolwork and all the pretty dresses she got to wear to posh events, to which Julia was mostly able to answer with ease which in Ella’s young eyes made Julia the smartest person on the planet.

Charlie was also impressed with her extensive knowledge but had still been shy, until one evening after he and his sister had finished their homework and been bathed and changed into their jammies. He had quietly wandered from their bedroom - where his dad was trying to get Ella to brush her hair - back into the living room, standing a couple of feet back from the couch where Julia was sat, watching her. He had quietly asked if they could watch a special show about animals that was on the “BBC channel” that he had watched one time at his friend’s house. That evening Julia and Charlie had bonded over Sir David Attenborough telling them all about the amazing, beautiful wildlife and landscape of Africa.

“Why do you call your mummy, ‘ _mother_ ’?” His inquisitive young eyes staring her way, sky blue just like his fathers. His head tilted slightly to the left like an inquisitive Labrador puppy.

The younger Budd had clearly heard her stressed voice on the phone to her _mother,_ trying to insist - _yet_ _again_ \- that there was absolutely no truth whatsoever in the latest article printed in the tabloids about the Home Secretary, Julia Montague and her desperate bid for a baby with her younger lover with the snappy headline _'Montague's Bid for Baby No.1'_. 

“Well, because that’s what she is and that’s what I’ve always called her.” Julia explained, making her way to the couch where Charlie was sat with his dad, no longer interested in the dinosaur documentary they had found on the tv. “She wants me to call her mother, so that’s what I call her, sometimes I call her mum.”

She ran her fingers through his dark hair, he was at the stage he really needed to get a haircut, or at least a trim but he was point blank refusing to let anyone near his head with scissors.

“Just like you and Ella call your mum - _mummy_ or _mum_ and Daddy calls his mum, your nana - _ma_.” Julia leaned in close and whispered “or _mother_ if he’s angry” she quietly laughed as Charlie chuckled and moved closer to her side, giving up his seat next to his father in favour of her.

David rolled his eyes “I do not.” He was forever grateful for the blossoming relationship between his lover and his children. Julia had been so nervous, constantly returning to her lack of time spent around children and her outwardly ‘ice queen’ nature that was forever being thrown her way by the majority of the British media. However, seeing them now, his son and his girlfriend, cuddled together on the couch, laughing lightly, was the most precious thing in the world, even if the laughter was at his expense.

“You do, Daddy! I’ve heard you!” Charlie giggled.

The trio sat for a few minutes in silence, attention trained on the tv as the person spoke about the likely hood of a single t-rex tooth being roughly the size of a banana. That was until Charlie asked a question that made her heart sink.

“Julia?”

“Hmm?”

“What will your kids call you?”

If it was possible for a human heart to sink into one’s stomach, hers definitely just did. She tried not to look at David as his bright blue eyes turned sad. They had spoken about having children together, not in any great detail, they had only been together for just under a year. The subject had come up one evening just days ago after a particularly scathing article had been printed in one of the tabloids - about her apparent struggle with fertility and how she and her ‘toy boy lover’ were currently looking into IVF to sooth the ticking of her desperate biological clock. All of which was complete nonsense, spurred on by a candid photo of the two of them walking past a private health clinic which was on the way to Charlie’s school. They were on their way to watch the youngest Budd compete in his first sports day at his new school when they were snapped holding hands walking past the clinic. Julia had brushed past the conversation about the idea of having their own biological children, siting her lack of maternal instincts and strained relationship with her own mother hardly being the ideal requirements for motherhood.

“I don’t have any kids, Charlie” She said quietly.

“Yeah not right now. But when you do...” The young boy, who in this moment looked exactly like his father, sat on his knees and turned to face her directly. “Like I call my mum, _mum_ or _mummy_ and you call your mum, _mother_ , what will your kids call you?”

The fact he said ‘kids’ instead of kid or child stuck with her, he was thinking she would have multiple children. If she was being completely honestly with herself, if her and David had met earlier or maybe even in a different life, she’d have a house full of kids, _his_ kids, blue eyes and wild curls, cheeky grins and rosy cheeks. Maybe her life would’ve been filled with pictures on the fridge, family holidays, ballet classes and sports games instead of being constantly demonised by the press and her ex-husband and having abuse aimed at her by people she didn’t even know.

“Well I don’t think I’m going to have any children...” she started until a shocked looking Charlie interrupted.

“Why not?”

“Well not everyone can” She tried to explain calmly and in terms a seven-year-old might understand “and as you get older, sometimes you can’t have children. It’s not as easy as some people think…”

“But you’re not old, Julia” Charlie smiled, and she laughed.

“Well thank you, little one” Julia smiled and kissed his head. “But sometimes people don’t have any children and that’s okay” she insisted “Not everyone has to have children”

Charlie pondered the idea for a moment before turning himself back to face the tv, cuddling his small body against hers.

“Well you have me and Ella, right? We could be your kids too. We could have two mummies and a daddy. You could be our other mummy.” He turned to face his father for a moment “Can’t she Daddy?”

David nodded and smiled at his young son, overwhelmed by his thoughtful nature for being such a young age “Aye, son. Of course, she can be, if Julia’s okay with that.”

“Would you want to be our other mummy? Ella would love it as well; I just know she would!” Charlie asked excitedly. She knew that if Ella had been with them this evening instead of at her friends birthday sleepover, he would’ve absolutely dragged her into the questioning.

Julia tried and failed miserably to hide the tears in her eyes, the young boy at her side oblivious to the weight of his words. She glanced at David who was sat on the other end of the sofa, watching intently at the interaction between the pair, he gave her a wink and reached for her hand on the back of the couch cushions, giving it a tight squeeze. His silent way of letting her know everything was going to be okay.

“I’d love that Charlie. Thank you. I’d love to be your other mummy.”


End file.
